In recent years the Better Care programme has transformed our Adult Community Mental Health Services to help people living with serious mental illnesses across South West London live well and stay well in their communities, closer to their friends and families.
Making sure people get the help they need early on is vital to preventing someone's mental ill health deteriorating. Key to this is ensuring that the help we provide outside hospitals goes further by supporting their wellbeing and social needs. That’s why we have been working to transform our community mental health services improve the way we care for our community patients in each of the five boroughs we serve.
In each area we have collaborated with local partners to offer a wider range of therapies and treatments, physical health care, peer and carer support and advice and support with housing, employment, finances and social welfare.
Collaborating for better
This three-year 'Community Transformation programme' has seen a large-scale collaboration with patients, carers, GP mental health leads, voluntary and community sector partners, and colleagues from across our adult community mental health services in Sutton, Merton, Kingston, Richmond and Wandsworth.
Sutton led the way, launching in early 2022, with Kingston and Richmond following in 2023 and Wandsworth and Merton in 2024.
As a result, our community mental health teams have become new 'Integrated Recovery Hubs' to help people get better access to a wide range of support including:
- Tailored mental health care and treatment, which is more recovery-focused and with an emphasis on evidence-based therapy
- Working with 22 different organisations across the five boroughs, such as Citizen’s Advice and Mind providing peer support, and advice about housing, employment, finances and social welfare
- Ensuring our GP partners can get specialist advice and guidance on care and treatment for service users.
More than 11,000 people have accessed these hubs in the last 12 months, with more than 1,600 people accessing peer support and welfare advice services.
Dr Victoria Hill, Clinical Director for Community Services said: “Our aim is to ensure our patients are able to live well in the community, receiving the right care at the right time in the right place.
“At the heart of this work has been co-production with those with lived experience of mental health, ensuring that everyone involved works together to create more joined-up care.
“I am so proud of what we have achieved and the difference it is making to our South West London community.”
Joined-up care
By working in a more joined-up way we can better meets the needs of our community. With a significant expansion of our workforce, we also hope to see more people accessing our services more quickly and reduced waiting times for evidence-based treatments in the long-term.
This will mean easier access to a wider range of support in places that are more convenient like GP surgeries, more people staying well for longer and fewer people experiencing a mental health crisis. All together this will deliver better care and a better experience for patients and carers across our communities.
Watch our explainer videos above to find out more about what this means for you.